TT: India women make their mark with Asian medal

Mumbai: In the end, Japan proved to be a giant too tall to take down, but India’s women players still underlined a significant marker in their growing strides with a medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The Indian women’s team had assured itself of at least a bronze after stunning South Korea, the Paris Olympics bronze medallists ranked seven spots above them in the team charts at world No.3, in the quarter-final on Tuesday. The semi-final on Wednesday presented an opportunity to push further into unchartered territory. World No.2 Japan though lived up to their ranking, coming out 3-1 victors in a tie where Manika Batra delivered the lone win for India, against the 17th-ranked Odo Satsuki.
Still, earning a first-ever medal from a tournament that pits Asia’s best and where team events date back to more than four decades ago is an extension of the growth curve of the current bunch of women, who made the quarter-final in the team event at the Paris Olympics — again, a first at the Games. India will have at least two medals from this edition of the Asian TT Championships after the men’s team, two-time bronze medallists, were assured of a third consecutive medal after beating Kazakhstan 3-1 and booking a semi-final with Chinese Taipei on Thursday.
“We came here with a specific goal — to better the previous performances. With two teams on the podium, we have already done that,” Massimo Costantini, India’s foreign coach, said over phone from Astana. “As for the women, this medal has also come after a good team performance in Paris. It shows that we are on the right track. We need to build a solid team that performs well as one.”
The women have shown signs of that in the recent past. Even in Astana, it wasn’t down to the star player doing the heavy lifting. Manika did beat the 16th-ranked Korean Jihee Jeon on Tuesday but she was complemented brilliantly by Ayhika Mukherjee, who took down world No.8 Shin Yubin and Jihee in the deciding contest. It meant despite India No.1 Sreeja Akula having an off day, the team had enough depth to come out 3-2 winners against a stronger opponent.
“If I need to improve the overall level of India, I don’t need one player. I need more players,” Costantini said. “All leading countries have this kind of system. We have seen many countries in the past having one great player, and then maybe 2-3 medium level players. That doesn’t make the country great. And I want to make India great. For this, I want to make more players and more resources.”
The Italian highlighted that as one of the reasons for benching Sreeja, who came into this tournament from an injury layoff, and bringing in Sutirtha Mukherjee against Japan. The giant-killing Ayhika came close to adding another big scalp when she led Miwa Harimoto in the deciding game before the 16-year-old world No.7 came through 3-2 (11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-7). Manika swatted aside the 17th-ranked Satsuki in straight games to level things up. The 9th-ranked Mima Ito was too good for Sutirtha while Manika couldn’t quite step up again against Miwa.
“We’re trying to build up a national team environment, and I thought of giving Sutirtha a go against Japan,” Costantini said. “Ayhika almost had another fantastic result, Manika beat a player who I believe will soon be in the top 10, and Sutirtha did what she could. Now it’s about improving further so that we can match up to countries like Japan as well.”
The men got the job done against the hosts but will have to get past a higher-ranked Chinese Taipei if they are to better their medal colour from 2021 and 2023.
On Wednesday, young Manav Thakkar got the ball rolling against Kazakhstan, beating their top-ranked player Kirill Gerassimenko, ranked 41st, 3-0. India met a rather unexpected bump when Harmeet Desai was beaten by Alan Kurmangaliyev, placed 183rd in the rankings, in straight games, but the veteran Sharath Kamal brought things back on track with a 3-0 win against Aidos Kenzhigulov. Harmeet brushed aside his off-colour outing earlier to turn it on against Gerassimenko for a 3-2 victory that sealed the quarter-final.